Chapter 14: A Puzzled Slug

Krait noticed that Dumbledore was often absent from the staff table; presumably he was following up leads. She had her own ideas about how to do that, and if the head chose to be secretive, then it was just too bad if they covered similar ground. She had written to Wendy and Casimir Malfoy to use muggle sources to see what they could find out about the orphanage day trips; and she also asked Merope. Her ghostly grandmother was pathetically eager to help; and Krait had a village name to work with. As Severus also announced that the visit to Azkaban was arranged and would take place soon, Krait was well pleased. Nagini was a fixed object, so to speak; and she was personally certain that she knew where the locket horcrux was, and that was in a box of not specifically dark rubbish out the back at number twelve, Grimmauld Place. If the cup was in the cave that covered the lot. Krait took her knowledge to Dumbledore.

"The village the orphanage kids were taken to is called Penjodoc….there is a sea cave that is said to be haunted, at least people don't like hanging out there. Theory is it's used by modern day smugglers who put out creepy stories, but a journalist following up that angle wrote that there was an atmosphere he didn't like….here's a map." She pushed towards him the map Casimir had sent by owl.

Dumbledore blinked.

"Bless my soul….I had my suspicions, but I'd only narrowed it down to three places…."

"I asked Merope then got my muggle sources on it" said Krait. "When in doubt, ask an eye witness…"

"Simple….too simple for an old fool of a subtle wizard" laughed Dumbledore. "Well, if you and Harry would care to come horcrux hunting tonight…."

"And Severus?"

"No….I don't want to leave the school with too many of my best forces. Severus is extremely skilled, and the MSHG will follow him and Sirius without question…"

Krait nodded. It made sense.

-/-

Horace Slughorn was feeling a bit like a fish out of water. He had assumed that Hogwarts was much as it had been in his younger days; but there were changes. There were groups of enthusiastic young people – generally the most competent in the class – who spoke amongst each other about the Muggle Studies Hobbies Group in a way that suggested this organisation was a power to be reckoned with within the school. It seemed to be run by Severus Snape and Sirius Black who also appeared to have overcome the extreme differences he remembered well; or at least they hid any such differences in a display of amity that seemed extraordinary.

Horace resented the comment a youth had made that he, Slughorn, was a bit of a disappointment, bearing in mind that he had taught Sev – the child presumably meant Severus Snape – and that another child reminded the first severely that Severus had told them that they were to show the same respect to Professor Slughorn as they would in class towards him. Calling a master by his first name did not tally with showing him respect – and yet they all seemed quite proper in their bearing towards young Severus in public. There were several youngsters bearing the surname Snape, of wildly different physical appearance, including a girl and a boy in the same year. And in that same year was a boy of considerable talent but no connections called David Fraser to whom almost everyone in the class deferred over matters of judgement; including Erich and Grace Snape, neither of them wildly talented potioneers. David Fraser was on excellent terms with Harry Potter and his bodyguard, it seemed, and his set – comprising of a mix of Gryffindors, Slytherin and a couple of Hufflepuffs – hung around with the older ones. Horace Slughorn found himself terribly curious about the Muggle Studies Hobbies Group. Also over the regular appearance of candied pineapple arriving anonymously on his desk. His previous experience had been that donors of such gifts were only too willing to own up to their generosity and would expect a quid pro quo of some kind. His own Slug club was popular enough, though Harry and his set seemed for the most part too busy with Quidditch to attend the first couple of little parties he had arranged, though Hermione Granger – a delightful girl! – had come along with Neville Longbottom. There was even a staff shortage, since Severus and Sirius had put together a scratch staff team to help the mixed house team – bound to cause problems – to train. They had to rely on some pupils, of course, and Ginny and Ron Weasley had formed a part of it, as well as the Fraser boy. Minerva and young Lector had made up the staff side; Rolanda Hooch was busy refereeing. It was all very different to the way things had been! He had even been careful to pick a night when there was no quidditch practise; and Harry and the Malfoy girl had told him that they were busy doing extra lessons with Professor Dumbledore! Slughorn was a little hurt. He liked Krait, for all her threats; but she had more mysteries surrounding her than just her parentage – the two babies she brought to class, for example, and dumped in the outsize cauldron in the corner with toys to play with. She claimed the boy as her half brother – and he already looked enough like Tom Riddle to believe that easily – and the other as her daughter! Horace had fumed slightly and asked what she was doing at school with a daughter; and the irritating girl had smiled blithely and told him she was completing her education! The rest of the staff seemed to ignore this shocking state of affairs; and Slughorn had two theories. One was that Potter had fathered the child and it had been blinked at as a result of the pressures he was under; his other theory wandered into the realm of suspecting Riddle of adding incest to his other crimes, and Krait was being treated gently over it as a mark of sympathy. He discarded the sly whisper of a Slytherin girl that Krait was married to a 'filthy muggle' as ridiculous.

-/-/-

Dumbledore insisted on extracting a promise from both youths that they would obey him utterly in all things, even if he gave the order to flee, run, hide or go back. Harry demurred; but promised. Krait promised readily; she had her fingers crossed behind her back in any case. Harry had the invisibility cloak ready; and they strolled out into the castle grounds.

-/-

Slughorn watched them go with some small irritation; and turned back to his own party, which had been gatecrashed by Salazar and Lilith who were being passed around his other guests quite happily; and Severus had also brought his younger daughters Jade and Lydia, who looked more like Malfoys…though if he had a Malfoy wife it would account for the range from fair Erich to dark Romulus with Grace in the middle. The child Jade was plainer than her sister, though the discussion – almost argument – she was in with Fraser (Slughorn had decided that Fraser was worth getting to know better, even if he was younger than most of those who were INVITED guests) which involved potion making that should have been beyond a third year's capabilities let alone the understanding of a child of no more than eight or at most nine years old! What was more the discussion was over the potential for improvement, not merely about the standard potion; young Jade had an arithmantic theory over the stirring that seemed sound, and Fraser was methodically going through it in a way that showed he appreciated arithmancy without being as fond of it as, say, Hermione Granger was. When Miss Granger joined the discussion, David Fraser laughed and said he knew when he was beat.

"No you aren't David" said Jade "Hermione uses the terms I don't know yet, I need a translator."

"Better talk to Krait" suggested David. Jade gave him a withering look.

"You know fine well she's not here, she and Harry are…" she lapsed into a sibilant hissing as she glanced towards Slughorn. Fraser hissed something back and Jade grinned.

"Yeah, he'll know…or I could pester Professor Slughorn, dad's just been leaked on by Salazar, dirty little beast that he is. Catch Lilith being lazy enough to still need nappies!"

"He's not a year old yet" said Hermione.

"Sirri believes in potty training young" shrugged Jade. "And Mum agrees….she's had enough of damp orphan mixed infants to last a lifetime."

Horace Slughorn blinked again. Was that Parseltongue? They said that Voldemort was a Parselmouth….was it a polite fiction that these girls were Severus' daughters? Were they step daughters? Was Krait their sister? There were similarities….who was mum? He had never met Severus' wife, he had assumed him to be widowed as he had his little girls with him. It had been Severus who had brought Krait to see him….she had not called him 'dad' like these little ones did, but if he was a stepfather it would not follow that an older child would. Yet one would expect Lucius to take on three girls sired on a Malfoy witch….the girl Jade approached him and smiled cheerily.

"Please, sir, can you tell me if I'm on the right lines?" she asked, and outlined her theory to him.

"Yes, indeed, though it's a little more complex than that…you have to be careful" Slughorn told her genially. "Tell me, my dear, what relation are you to Krait Malfoy?"

Jade looked surprised.

"Well, technically, she's my first cousin once removed" she said "But as she's my 'doptive mum that's what counts more."

Slughorn blinked.

"What?" he spluttered.

Jade sighed and gave him a give-me-patience-at-the-stupidity-of-grownups look.

"Krait loved us in the orphanage" she explained carefully "And when dad – he wasn't dad then – took her out to go to Hogwarts we were sad. But then they came to get us too, Lydia and me, and dad became dad, and Lydia never remembered mummy anyway, and Krait was more a mummy than anyone had ever been so as she and dad were an item and nearly married calling her mum felt right, see?"

"Not really….is Lilith your father's child then?" he asked.

"Well of COURSE she is….you don't get immaculate conceptions in England you know" said Jade patiently. "You need a mummy AND a daddy to make a baby because you need two halves of a seed, like pollen on the style of a plant…."

"I know about the process!" yelped Slughorn irritably. "I was….surprised. Your father doesn't seem to take much notice of Krait…."

"Well of COURSE he's got to be tough on her, like on my 'doptive sibs too" said Jade. "And the teachers all know but people outside the MSHG haven't a clue….didn't anyone tell you?"

"No" said Slughorn.

"Oh I expect they forgot….it's old news, Lilith was born almost a year ago and of course they'd been married ages before that" said Jade airily.

"I – oh. Are you a Parselmouth?" he asked bluntly.

"Yes" said Jade. "Aren't all the best people?"

"THAT was insolent" said Severus behind her.

"I'm sorry Professor Slughorn" said Jade instantly. "I got cross at all the questions. I can't say I didn't mean to be rude, 'cos I did, but I should have been rude more tactfully."

Slughorn stared open mouthed at her self possession.

"Glad you never had daughters, I dare say, Horace" said Severus. "Jade, you…you pest!"

"Er….yes" said Slughorn. "Full credit to Jade's honesty, I suppose….I was being nosy."

"Why didn't you ask me instead of pumping the child, Horace?" Severus asked. His voice was lazy but it carried an edge.

Slughorn had the grace to look uncomfortable.

"I thought she'd tell me more than you might" he said.

"Ah…full marks for YOUR honesty, Horace….and your perspicacity. Krait and I do not broadcast our….attachment."

"Couldn't you have waited, Severus? The girl is still a child, a schoolgirl….it must interfere with her work…"

"Two things, Horace, as it's in the open" said Severus quietly. "One: Jade and Lydia needed two parents. Two: we may not be alive to see her complete her NEWTS. The Order of the Phoenix you ducked joining has its uses for both of us and those uses are being close to her father. I trust your integrity and so I tell you this, because I have cast a spell of my own devising that means your incidental guests cannot hear this conversation…..please do not refer to it ever again to me or to Krait."

"No….no, of course not, Severus. I – it's damnably irregular."

"So's Fishface" said Severus dryly. "You want to help? Join the MSHG. You want to be comfortable? Stay well away from the MSHG. We bite. Come, Jade, it's time to bath the babes and bed them down."

Horace Slughorn blinked perplexedly and shook his head. Severus Snape had always been a loner, self possessed in a way, but also defensive. Now? Now he carried himself with an assurance and authority of manner that almost made one feel that it was he who had been the master, not the pupil….what he and Krait were up to must be horribly risky; it made Slughorn's blood run cold to even consider it! He could not carry it off – and had he not been Tom Riddle's favourite teacher?

So far as I am aware there is no village called Penjodoc; I picked a Cornish sounding name. Pen means 'hill of' and Jodoc was a popular saint in Cornwall and Brittany AKA St Josse out of the local dialects.